Hunters and Pickers

Have you ever wondered why women usually appear in joke about traffic accident while men are more frequent drivers? Normally, women are considered as traffic disaster. They are said to have a bad sense of space. But is it true? And from where did such concept origin?

Since the dawn of mankind of history, we had divided the labor force into two groups: hunters and pickers. Hunters were the ones going far, chasing and killing animals. In contrast, pickers stayed close to the tribe, picking fruit from trees and taking care of the younger generation. While picking fruit demanded little afford, running after a deer and throwing pikes required much energy. Therefore, in order to improve the productivity of the whole community, men were responsible for hunting and women took the job as a picker. Since then, this division has led to a biological gap between men and women.

To understand how the gap had appeared, it is necessary to look at the job of each sex.

As mentioned above, hunters’ task was to killing the animal and bringing it back to the tribe. Simple as it may sound, such task has been the main motivation for the evolution of all creatures since the appearance of the first cell. To hunt an animal required the hunter to patiently wait for his prey’s mistake, to run after and away from the animal for many miles, and to observe the target from a long distance. The closer the hunter got to the prey, the greater the chance that he would be recognized was. Recall the moment we want to see something clearer, what do we do? We squint. And so did the hunters. They had to squint to make the vision better. They might not see things around them, but they had to see the prey as far as possible. The longer their vision was, the better. Moreover, being a hunter does not only require a good vision, but also a good sense of space. Normally, hunters had to travel a long distance to find the food. Therefore, without a good sense of space which could help him to determine the direction, he would not have been able to find his way home. Women did not go that far from the tribe, they did not need to obtain such ability.

However, all the things above belong to the past. Do they still hold true in this modern day when we no longer have to hunt or pick? The answer is “yes”, such things still exist, at least for now. Here comes the evolution machine. Men with better visibility would have more food and therefore, stand a better chance to help him and his tribe to survive, and spread his advantage to the next generation. Though after years of civilization, hunting is no longer so necessary or popular, one’s ability is genetically coded and will not be gone easily. Moreover, other tasks have appeared and required the ability of a hunter. 4000 years ago, it was the need of throwing a spike precisely. 3900 years later, it was the standard for soldiers to use gun from a very far distance. Nowadays, in transport, it is the ability to see a burden approaching and determine the direction. Due to their ancestors’ reputation as hunters, men still hold responsibility for such task and therefore, the ability to sense the space and look as far as possible has never been unused or lost.

Women, as pickers, in the other hand, did not need a long vision. However, as they stayed at home protecting their child, they needed something else. The advantage in women’s eyes over men’ is its ability to have a wider vision. They had to notice every movement in their surroundings. The wild animals could jump out at any moment and from everywhere. That is why women often criticize her spouse for looking too directly at a different girl. We men have to do this, because we do not have such a wide vision as yours.

Kz

A hunter